Tag Archives: indie publishing

Can’t win ’em all and that’s okay. It was always a bit of a longshot. Yesterday, I was informed that my novel The Stars Were Right was eliminated from the SPFBO. C’est la vie. While I would have loved to win, I’m not upset. It was fun to participate and to get even this far in the contest was pretty exciting. Plus, participating helped me discover a whole swath of great new books and a welcoming community.

There is still a lot of the contest left as the 10 blogs whittle down the original three hundred to the ten finalists. Winner will be announced next year. I want to extend a hearty thank you to the team at BookNest for reading my little book, and Rob J. Hayes for reviewing it and choosing it as a semi-finalist.

You can continue to follow the contest’s progress over on Mark Lawrence’s blog. Good luck to everyone still in the running. I’ll be over here watching and cheering from the sidelines.

The next round will be tough, I’m up against some fierce competition. But that said, I didn’t expect my strange little book to even be a contender in a contest usually dominated by more traditional fantasy offerings. It’s been fun to be a part of this so far, and the community has been fantastic.

Not an ebook reader? If you prefer the smell and feel of paper, you can buy the trade paperback from any of these fine establishments. I also sell signed copies through my own store, and I ship anywhere.

Good luck to my fellow semi-finalists and to all the participants. I’m sure there will be much more to come and win or lose I’ll be sure to let you know The Stars Were Right’s fate right here.

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Today, August 1st which marks the beginning of the 2018 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off and to celebrate the kickoff many entrants are offering our books on sale for only 99¢!

The Stars Were Right is a part of this year’s entrants, and I was happy to participate in the sale. So if you’re looking for a genre-bending Lovecraftian urban fantasy thriller to sink your… uh, tentacles into for the summer, now is an excellent time to pick it up.

The sale runs August 1st through August 5th, and along with my own book, you’ll find over one hundred twenty others on sale spanning a multitude of fantasy subgenres. It’s a great way to support the participating authors and save yourself some money. You can see the full list by following the link below.

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Here’s how it works: each year 300 fantasy authors submit their books. Those books are then divided among ten bloggers—Stars will be reviewed this year by the good folks over at Booknest. In Phase One, the books are read, and each blogger chooses one book to advance to the next round. Then in Phase Two all the bloggers read the submitted ten, and score each of them. Out of those ten books only one will be selected as the winner! It’s fun and great for the indie fantasy community. Check out the past winners here.

Also, I want to thank my pal Mihir from Fantasy Book Critic for letting me know submissions were open. I’ve watched the SPFBO from the sidelines for a few years now, and for whatever reason, I never thought my books qualified. I’m happy I listened to him and took the opportunity to submit.

Win or lose, I’m excited to see how The Stars Were Right does. The contest skews heavily towards fantasy fiction, and while The Stars Were Right is very much urban fantasy, the weird world of the Territories has a lot in common with many other subgenres. As my readers know, I tend to eschew the standard fantasy trappings in exchange for something more… um, strange. So, we’ll see! Fingers crossed!

Phase One runs from August 1st – December 31st, 2018. If you want to read along, you can see the full list and bloggers participating over here. Follow along on Twitter by using the hashtag #SPFBO. Regardless of the outcome, I’m excited to join in, and I want to wish good luck to everyone who is competing. It should be a good year!

It’s Friday! That means it’s time for the Friday Link Pack, my weekly post covering topics such as writing, art, current events, and random weirdness. Some of these links I mentioned on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Do you have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

WRITING:

Five Years
Author M.S. Force reflects on the last five years of her career when she decided to take her rejected novel True North and step into indie publishing.

Alan Moore’s Advice To Unpublished Authors
“If you write every day, you’re a writer.” In this quick video recorded at St James Library, Northampton, UK, Alan Moore gives some advice to new and unpublished writers.

RANDOM:

The Return of #FeedCthulhu
Ross Lockheart, of the weird fiction press Word Horde, is giving away ebooks of their latest anthology, Cthulhu Fhtagn! All you have to do is donate to your local food bank and tweet about it. Three lucky winners will win personalized autographed copies as well. Details in the post!

Our Generation Ships Will Sink
Sci-fi great, Kim Stanley Robinson, dives into the complexity inherent in the ideas surrounding generation ships and why he thinks they are not only impractical but impossible outside the realm of fiction. Great article.

Your Jetpack Is HereNo, really. I’m serious. Check out this incredible video of the JB-9, the world’s only true jetpack. Find out more at Jetpack Aviation’s website. The future is now people. The future… is now.

WEIRD WIKIPEDIA:

Prostitution Among Animals
“A few studies have been used to promote the idea that prostitution exists among different species of animals such as Adélie penguins and chimpanzees. Penguins use stones for building their nests. Based on a 1998 study, media reports stated that a shortage of stones led female Adélie penguins to trade sex for stones. Some pair-bonded female penguins copulate with males who are not their mates and then take pebbles for their own nests.”

Red Litten World is out now! The misadventures of Waldo Bell continue. (Links to purchase below.) I’m so excited to be taking everyone from the high deserts of the Territories and back into the claustrophobic corridors and grungy warrens of Lovat. I think longtime readers will find a lot to enjoy Red Litten World, and new readers will have a blast learning about the megalopolis and its strange inhabitants and cultures. Setting out, the goal was to write something that felt both familiar but kept things fascinating. Thankfully, Lovat is a rich enough setting that I could write a book every year for a lifetime and still not explore every corner of the city.

For those who prefer paperbacks, you can pick up Red Litten World from any of the links below. If you’re looking for signed copies, I sell them through my online store for $15 (plus shipping). They look awesome.

For those eBook readers, you can pick up an eBook of Red Litten World from any of the following platforms. (Nook always trails a bit, but the book should be up there in the next few days.) [Update: Nook is live!] Is there a platform you prefer that I don’t currently support? Feel free to email me and let me know, I’d love to get my books onto your favorite.

Make sure you add Red Litten World to your currently-reading list on Goodreads, and please when you’re finished, leave a review. I can blog and tweet and shout from my roof, but it’s my readers that make all the difference when it comes to spreading the word.

I hope you enjoy Red Litten World, everyone. Welcome back to Lovat.

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